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Show ALBAN AT VERIJLAMTIM, BRITANNIA A.D. 209 I The wooded grove was dark and it was cold. The tangled brashes kept the sunshine out. Some sacrificial blood had splattered on the nearby trees, and birds were frightened to descend on overhanging limbs and twigs which moved reluctantly and shivered at each breeze with horrpr. The graven images were grim, misshapen from the desperate rock and covered all with filth; they terrified officiating priests whose savage deeds commanded fear itself to cautious ways. The stuff of human sacrifice resided here. This Mona grove, the Druid's sacred spot, was just ahead, and scouts reported that the victim of the sacrifice, whose blood was flowing into cups prepared, was slain. It was to be a standard exercise, by order of the Roman governor, Suetonius Paulinus, senator: attack with cavalry, then kill with sword. What does the smoke upon this altar mean? The decayed flowers meant for goddesses? What does it profit them to sing and slay some man in ritual death from day to day? Or can it be, he thought, that blackened fumes will charm a passing deity into remaining while the restless worship her? Thus Alban, citizen of Rome and soldier in the reign of Septimus Severus, the emperor and king of all the world, extolled by his centurion Aulus„ was praised to all the legion for bravery in battle and hand-to-hand combat against the Druid guards, these priests of blood who hold the people's mind against empire. |
